Can right frontal lobe brain injury have delayed symptoms?

[oldpeach2]

My husband was wounded in Vietnam when shrapnel entered the right frontal lobe. Surgery was was done to remove 5 cc of macerated brain and bone chips with stainless wire mesh inserted to cover the hole in the skull.  He is now diagnosed by the Veterans Administration as having right frontal lobe encephalomalacia.   He has many of the symptoms described for this diagnosis but the VA is not recognizing them because he did not have them immediately after injury.

[caregiver222]

Your husband has my sympathies. Thank him for his service to this nation.

One of the first things to do is to request from the treatment facility every scrap of medical information in his file. Go in person and give them a few days. They are very good about this.

Secondly, attempt to retrieve any documentation from military facilities where he recieved treatment. This is harder, because those records may be lost or no longer exist.

The VA has some pretty good social workers. The local VFW post will also prove helpful.

For compensation determination purposes, under certain circumstances the VA will permit the opinions of physicians outside the VA system to be entered in the record.

Good luck.

[oldpeach2]

Thanks you very much!  

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Damage to the frontal lobe of the brain causes frontal encephalomalacia. Encephalomalacia is not an illness. It is basically a softening of the brain matter as a result of an ischemia or infarction, degenerative changes, infection, craniocerebral trauma, or other injury.  Thus any damage to this lobe can lead to long term memory loss, mood swings, talking too much, and energy bursts leading to over activity. Long term complication is chance of schizophrenia.
Yes, it is possible to have encephalomalacia long after brain injury due to either injury itself or due to low blood supply to the injured area. You can probably take a second opinion from another doctor maybe through VA or outside it. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!